BACKGROUND Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease of progressive vascular remodeling, characterized by dysregulated growth of pulmonary vascular cells and inflammation. A prevailing view is that abnormal cellular metabolism, notably aerobic glycolysis that increases glucose demand, underlies the pathogenesis of PAH. Increased lung glucose uptake has been reported in animal models. F...

Pulmonary endothelium is a major metabolic organ affecting pulmonary and systemic vascular homeostasis. Brain death (BD)-induced physiologic and metabolic derangements in donors' lungs, in the absence of overt lung pathology, may cause pulmonary dysfunction and compromise post-transplant graft function. To explore the impact of BD on pulmonary endothelium, we estimated pulmonary capillary endot...

IL-13 and IL-4 are central T helper 2 (Th2) cytokines in the immune system and potent activators of inflammatory responses and fibrosis during Th2 inflammation. Recent studies using Il13ra1(-/-) mice have demonstrated a critical role for IL-13 receptor (IL-13R) alpha1 in allergen-induced airway responses. However, these observations require further attention especially because IL-4 can induce s...